That kind of spin might work in Washington, where political posturing over raising the debt ceiling has turned cynicism about government “solutions” into abject apathy on the part of brain-numb citizens.

In Harrisburg, however, someone has to look out for the city, for the citizens, for the taxpayers. By voting down this Act 47 plan, which a majority has indicated it plans to do, City Council will do what hasn’t been done since the state took over and stacked the deck against the city.

Between May 5 and mid-June, a flurry of activity took place between all kinds of negotiators for Harrisburg’s debt solution. None of them actually represented Harrisburg.

Dauphin County Commissioner Jeff Haste; Dauphin County’s outside counsel firm of Mette, Evans and Woodside; bond insurer AGM; Lancaster Solid Waste Management Authority; Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley and Gov. Tom Corbett; Chief Counsel Steve Aichele and Jen Branstetter; the Act 47 team appointed by the Department of Community and Economic Development: These parties all huddled for Harrisburg’s solution — a plan that binds only Harrisburg to help nail its own coffin shut.

Corbett never met with any Harrisburg city officials but is said to have dismissed suggestions that the city might have to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy.

State Sen. Jeffrey Piccola, the Dauphin County Republican, never held a public hearing during all the years when Harrisburg was recklessly racking up this $310 million incinerator debt. But with Dauphin County on the hook for millions and a commuter tax on the table, Piccola whipped out legislation that barred the city from filing for bankruptcy.

Officials from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development would appear to have a conflict in the Harrisburg case. DCED signed off on Harrisburg’s past borrowings, including the 2007 note for $34 million that had Bear Stearns freaked out because the note wasn’t self-liquidating. Who didn’t know that the incinerator could not generate enough revenue to pay its debt, or that the city was exceeding a sane debt limit?

Meanwhile, Dauphin County has worked furiously to cut deals to sell Harrisburg’s assets, hoping to get back the millions it has had to pay out as the second guarantor on the incinerator loans. Without the county’s guarantee, the incinerator borrowings would have never happened.

By failing to enact a debt plan after her election in 2009, Mayor Linda Thompson crushed the city’s negotiating position. After her initial pleas were answered by former Gov. Ed Rendell, Thompson was cut loose from inside negotiation sessions. She downplayed her role as City Council president, when Thompson allowed her political campaign against former Mayor Stephen R. Reed to take priority over serious negotiations about the Harrisburg Authority debt, where her campaign treasurer, James Ellison, once served as chairman.

No wonder the Securities and Exchange Commission continues to interview Harrisburg officials about the Harrisburg Authority bonds. Was there a willful failure by Reed and/or Thompson to disclose to secondary markets that debt service on incinerator bonds was at risk?

Questions linger about the incinerator borrowings. These questions have tainted the Act 47 process, which from the beginning was designed to close Harrisburg out of talks about what would be included in the plan.

The record — no matter how cloaked in secrecy it is — will show that no one from the city was in a position to negotiate on behalf of Harrisburg over the past seven months. City officials were purposely left out and for that, Thompson and City Council share the blame: Thompson for turning the city’s financial mess over to the state; council for failing to leverage its pro bono law firm, Cravath, Swaine & Moore, into position to negotiate on its behalf.

However, the failures of a weakened mayor and City Council don’t exonerate the tainted process that produced the city’s Act 47 plan. That taint includes this question:

What happened to Act 47 team spokesman Robert O’Donnell? Did his reasonable approach toward reaching a fair solution get him axed from the Act 47 team?

O’Donnell said last week that all questions about Harrisburg had to go through Julie Novak, the consultant who produced the Act 47 report which was, essentially, authored by Dauphin County negotiators.

O’Donnell is the second Act 47 spokesman, official or otherwise, who was apparently eliminated from the Harrisburg debt-solution process. O’Donnell carried a similar approach as DCED Chief Counsel Steve Fishman, another reasonable negotiator who, sensing Harrisburg’s debt crisis and administrative failures, strove for a solution that would not plunder Harrisburg when other stakeholders walked away without pain.

In this Act 47 process, the good guys get eradicated and representatives of Harrisburg’s citizens were included in nothing.

Now, Act 47 demands the city bind itself to a plan while all the other stakeholders and mischief-makers who were part of this incinerator debt wipe their hands, collect their consulting and underwriting fees.

WHAT’S NEXT

* Mayor Linda Thompson has a press conference set for 11 a.m. today to talk about the Act 47 financial recovery plan

* If there’s an agreement: If the City Council and Mayor Linda Thompson approve the plan, it’s sent to state Department of Community and Economic Development Secretary C. Alan Walker for review.

* If there’s no agreement: If the City Council and Thompson don’t agree on a plan, the state could withhold grants and other money it delivers to the city.

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